We assume you already checked out what’s under your tree and what’s been stuffed in your stockings.

Did you get what you asked for? Did you manage your expectations, or did you ask for a dangerous Red Ryder carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle even though conventional wisdom was that you’d shoot your eye out. That cautionary prophecy from the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story” is worth considering from both sides of the equation.

Sometimes the worst possible scenario is to get exactly what you want, or what you think you want. Yearning for that forbidden present or your fantasy forbidden fruit may be just the wrong thing. Are you entitled to a utopian Christmas? Is anyone?

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Read the warning labels. FRAGEELEE is not French for “a major award.” Don’t allow a triple-dog-dare to result in you putting your tongue on a frozen metal pole.

Forget about what you got or wanted, and focus on how you can make today a Merry Christmas for all with whom you come in contact. Start giving more. You might be surprised at how that will work out for you.

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No American president, or any city council member, for that matter, has ever unreservedly delighted in the way he or she was presented in the press. “I so appreciate the accuracy of their reporting on my perceived flaws!” said no official ever. “And good for them for holding me accountable.”